Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes

A creatively experimental laboratory, comprising a collection of free flowing stream-of-consciousness gags, strips, and drawings that slowly coalesce into an unexpectedly compelling and complex narrative.

Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes takes up where the artist’s first volume, Monologues for the Coming Plague, left off. The hints of story that came together in the first book are extrapolated and expanded upon and grow to incorporate some of Nilsen's other outré strips from the anthology MOME, two of which are reprinted here in expanded form. The book is an audacious investigation into the rhythms of storytelling, the blurring of media, and an exercise in reconciling contrasts. It is playful, provocative and serious all at once — another tour de force by Anders Nilsen, impeccably and uniquely designed, in monochrome and full color.

Spare and scratchy where Nilsen’s other work was detailed; loose and spontaneous where his other work was considered; and funny where his other work was melancholy. It’s interesting to see the many influences that inform Monologues; there’s a bit of absurdists like Ionesco, elements of Tom Stoppard’s wit and philosophical musings, stream of consciousness dada in the style of Tristan Tzara, and oblique New Yorker type gags with the scratchy looseness of James Thurber and Saul Steinberg.

— Rob Clough

Anders Nilsen’s comics have the rare power to generate queasy laughter... Random cruelty, futility, ennui, and an implied assault on human complacency are the order of the day. When Nilsen wants you to feel his boredom, or taunt you for your own, he’s merciless... Nilsen is a relentlessly interesting comics creator. ...I’m looking forward to his next performance in the wasteland.